New System - £1,200 | Opinions wanted

[Bill Lowe]

Hello,

I'm new here, as I haven't had the opportunity to build a new, or majorly upgrade my current system in a long time. So you might say I'm a little out of touch, in some respects, netherless I am planning to order a new setup next week.

I've done my best to put together something that feels right on Overclockers UK, who I haven't used before so also interested to hear any opinions on the company and their service.

Just general opinion would be great to have, for a kind of final reassurance

XFX ATI Radeon HD 4890 XT 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
Samsung T200 20" Widescreen LCD Monitor x2
Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 64-Bit - OEM (66R-02034)
Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400 LGA775 'Yorkfield' 2.66GHz 4MB-cache (1333FSB) Processor
Asus P5Q Deluxe Intel P45 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
Corsair TX 750W ATX SLI Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-750TXUK)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1.5TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31500341AS)
Antec 900 Nine Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black (No PSU)
Corsair Dominator 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 XMS2 PC2-8500C5 TwinX Supplied with Airflow Fan (TWIN2X4096-8500C5DF)
Logitech Z-4e 2.1 Speaker System (970175-0120)
Microsoft HABU 2000dpi High Precision Gaming Mouse (9VV-00003)
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio 7.1 Sound Card - OEM (PCI) (30SB079200000)
Zalman CNPS7500-CU CPU Cooler (Socket 478/754/939/940/AM2/LGA775)
Pioneer DVR-216DBK 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM
Microsoft Comfort Curve 2000 Keyboard - OEM (FA3-00015)

Sub Total : £1,195.94 (EX-VAT)
Shipping : £19.10
VAT : £182.26
Total : £1,397.30

I'm not entirely sure on a couple of items, but that's a pretty firm idea of what I think I'm looking for.

My budget is between £1-2k, though I would like to keep it under £1,500 as I plan to buy a Wacom too.

A little breakdown of what I use my PC for, primarily:
- Mainly Photoshop/Dreamweaver
- Gaming
- 3D studio max, mudbox, zbrush and game world editors (e.g. Torque, CE2 etc)

Some other minor questions;

- Is it worth getting a raptor for my system drive these days?
- For the sake of performance, when working with large files in PS/Max etc, would multiple physical hard drivers, as opposed to partitions, be better?

Thanks,

 

[Why_Me]

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/131551 £54.99 inc vat Free Delivery
Coolermaster CM690 Dominator Black Mid Tower Case - No PSU

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-004-PP&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1104 £83.98 inc VAT
PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Quad-Crossfire PCI-E 750W Power Supply

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/161061 £144.95 inc vat Free Delivery
ASUS P6T SE iX58 Socket 1366 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-283-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=1272 £204.99 inc VAT
Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping (SLBEJ) 2.66Ghz (Nehalem) (Socket LGA1366) - OEM + World In Conflict PC Game

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-020-SY&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat= £36.98 inc VAT
Scythe Mugen 2 CPU Cooler (Socket 478/754/939/940/AM2/LGA775/LGA1366)

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=TH-000-OC&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat= £3.44 inc VAT
OCZ Freeze Extreme Thermal Conductivity Compound

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-129-OC £77.99 inc VAT
OCZ Gold 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 (1600MHz) Tri-Channel (OCZ3G1600LV6GK)

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/167969 £140.73 inc vat Free Delivery
XFX HD 4890 1GB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDTV Out PCI-E Graphics Card

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/146082 £73.20inc vat Free Delivery
Western Digital 1TB Hard Drive SATA300 7200rpm 32MB Cache Caviar Black - OEM

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/145450 £16.21 inc vat
Samsung SH-S223F 22X DVD?RW/RAM/DL Serial ATA Black Bare Drive - OEM

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/96790 £12.38 inc vat
Microsoft Comfort Curve 2000 keyboard - USB

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/94471 £54.35 inc vat Free Delivery
Logitech Z-4 Black 2.1 PC Speakers With Remote Control - 40W RMS

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/118546 £36.59 inc vat
Microsoft Habu Gaming Mouse With 200DPI Razer Precision - USB

Total: £940.78 inc vat

 

[pij]

why me where's the guys screen man??

 

[Why_Me]

why me where's the guys screen man??

I would go with a 24" monitor instead of the dual 20's he has posted. He can always pick up another monitor later down the road, but it seems like a waste of that 4890 on a 20" monitor imo. Also I didn't throw in a sound card for the fact onboard sound these days is so improved.

http://www.scan.co.uk/ <---- this place has some good deals on LCD monitors 24" VESA rated monitor for under 200 pounds.

 

[Why_Me]

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/22-Acer-V223WBbd-Black-Widescreen-LCD-Monitor-5ms-DVI-VGA-1680x1050-100001-HDCP £111.54 Inc VAT
ET.EV3WE.B08 - 22" Acer V223WBbd, Black, Widescreen LCD Monitor, 5ms, DVI/VGA, 1680x1050, 10000:1, HDCP, Green!

 

[tecmo34]

^+1 Why_Me's build.

For what you do, the Core i7 is the way to go

 

[gkay09]

+1 for Why_Me...No doubt his build would best suit those requirements....

And as for your questions...

- Is it worth getting a raptor for my system drive these days?
NO, The velociraptors don't offer that kind of performance boost over the current hard drives(Especially WD Black 640GB/1TB) as compared to the old raptors over the HDD that were available that time...

- For the sake of performance, when working with large files in PS/Max etc, would multiple physical hard drivers, as opposed to partitions, be better?
I think it would offer a little more performance as I had seen in some other post...but not completely sure about this...others should help you out with this...

If you want high performance then you should get a SSD...but still those command a price premium...

 

[Guest]

Logitech g9 is better than Habu, also i7 is definately for you, with better memory bandwidth, you can also easily go 6GB ram but 12Gb will be even better in Photoshop,.